If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 69. Psalm 69. We're just going to
read the first four verses of this. As you're turning, let
me remind you now that next Wednesday night, we'll have a service here. It'll be on Thursday next week.
We're going to have our Bible school outing Wednesday evening.
Our midweek service next week will be on Thursday. Psalm 69,
verse 1. Save me, O God, for the waters
are coming in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing. I'm coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow me. I'm weary of my crying. My throat
is dried. My eyes fail while I wait for
my God. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy
me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. We'll end our reading there.
Okay, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn to song
number 287. 287. Like a River Glorious. Like a river glorious is God's
perfect peace, over all victorious in its pride increase. Perfect
yet it floweth for every day Perfect yet it groweth deeper
all the way hearts are fully blessed, binding
as He promised perfect peace and rest. Hidden in the hollow
of His blessed hand, Never foe can follow, never traitor stand. Not a surge of worry, not a shade
of care. Not a blast of hurry, touch the
spirit there. Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed, Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest. Every joy or trial falleth from
above, traced upon our dial by the Son of God. We may trust Him fully, all for
us to do. They who trust Him wholly find
Him wholly true. ? State upon Jehovah, hearts
are fully blessed ? ? Funding as he promised, perfect peace
and rest ? Okay, if you would now turn to
song number 235. 235. Pass me not. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble cry, While on others Thou art calling, Do not
pass me by. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Let me at a throne of mercy find
a sweet relief. Kneeling there in deep contrition,
help my unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Trusting only in Thy merit, Would
I seek Thy face, Heal my wounded, broken spirit, Save me by Thy
grace. Savior, Savior, Hear my humble
cry, while on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
more than life to me. Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in heaven but Thee? Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. All right, let's open our Bibles
out of Genesis chapter 14 Genesis chapter 14 and it came to pass in the days
of and rifle king of shine are area king of LCR to cheddar lay
over king of Elam and title king of nations. These made war with
Bera, king of Sodom, and with Bersha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab,
king of Admah, and Shemabar, king of Zeboam, and the king
of Bela, which is Zoar. All these were joined together
in the Vale of Sidon, which is the Salt Sea. Twelve years they
served Cheddo Laomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
And in the fourteenth year came Cheddo Laomer and the kings that
were with him, and smoked the ruffians and Ashtaroth, Carnam,
and the Zuzums in Ham and the Emums in Shaveth, Kerathium,
and the Horites in their Mount Seir and Elperin, which is by
the wilderness. And they returned and came to
Enmishpat, which is Kadesh, and smoked all the country of the
Amalekites and also the Amorites that dwelt in Hazazon, Tamar. And there went out of the king
of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah and the king of Adma and the
king of Zeboam and the king of Bila, the same as Zohar. And
they joined battle with the M and the veil of Sidon and the, and
with Tito Leomer, the king of Elam and with title king of nations
and Mrephel king of Shinar and Ariok king of El Sayar, four
kings with five. And the veil of Sidon was full
of slime pits. and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah
fled and fell there. And they, the remained fled to
the mountain and they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah
and all their victuals and went their way. And they took lot
Abram's brother's son who dwelt in Sodom and his goods and departed. And there came one that had escaped
and told Abram the Hebrew for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre,
the Amorite brother of Escol and brother of Aner, And these
were Confederate with Abram. And when Abram heard that his
brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born
in his own house, 318, and pursued them unto Dan. And he divided
himself against them, he and his servants by night, and smote
them and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of
Damascus. And he brought back all the goods and also brought
again his brother Lot and his goods and the women also, and
the people. We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent is your matchless name. Father, how thankful we
are that you've given us yet one more opportunity to meet
together and to worship your precious name, to open your word
and to read and study it, to have Christ the Savior preach
to us one more time. Father, how thankful we are.
And I pray that you would enable us this evening to do just that,
to worship you. Make this a time of a special
time of worship where the hearts of your people would be awed
at seeing Christ the Savior, how fully and completely he has
saved his people from their sins. Cause us to follow his feet and
to worship, we pray. Father, we ask that you'd enable
us to forget about all the concerns and goings on of this life. For
this hour, let us set our affection on things above, things that
are so vitally important to our souls. And Father, we're thankful. How we thank you for Christ our
righteousness. Through his obedience to the
law, we're made righteous. We could be obedient, be made
righteous no other way. We have no obedience of our own.
How we thank you for his precious, sin-atoning blood that puts away
the sin of all of your people. Our sin is so vile it could not
be washed away. It could not be paid for any
other way but the blood of your own son. Father, we're thankful. We're thankful for your calling,
saving, keeping grace. We're thankful that you've preserved
this gospel in this place for so many years. Father, we pray
it could be thy will that you continue to preserve and protect
your gospel here, that this might always be a place where sinners
can come and hear the Savior, where the sin-sick soul can come
and find the sweet balm of Gilead, Christ our Savior preached. And
Father, we dare not sin against thee in forgetting to pray for
your people that you brought into the time of trouble and
trial. There are many, and you know
the needs of your people. You know the cares of our hearts.
Father, we pray that you would oversee in a mighty way, that
you'd heal your people, that you'd give grace for the hour,
that you'd give us a good report on those who are sick, and that
you might heal and touch their bodies and restore them to us.
All these things we ask, and we give thanks in that name which
is above every name, the name of Christ our Savior. This is my father's world and
to my listening all nature sings and round me
rings the music of the spheres this is my father's world I rest
me in of rocks and trees of skies and
seas his hands the wonders wrought this is my father's world the
birds their carols raise the morning light the lily white
declare their maker's praise this is my father's world he shines in all that's fair
in the rustling grass i hear him pass he speaks to me everywhere
this is my father's world oh let me Yet though the wrong seems oft
so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my father's world, the
battle is not done. Jesus who died shall be satisfied
and earth and heaven be one. Thank you, Brady. I don't know
that we could be reminded once too many times that this is our
Father's world. The world seems like it's gone
off its rails and lunacy is commonplace. It's good to be reminded, isn't
it, this is not my father's world. He's in control of it. All right,
open your Bibles again, if you would, now to Genesis chapter
14. I titled our message this evening, Christ, Our Mighty Conqueror.
I'm not gonna reread those first 10 verses. I've been worried
all day about reading all those names in those first 10 verses.
Let me just tell you what happened there so we can go on to see
this picture of Christ, our mighty conqueror. There were four kings,
mighty kings, and they joined together. They defeated five
other kings, five other nations. And for 12 years, those five
nations were slaves and servants and served these other four kings.
They paid high taxes and just were their slaves. People just
ran roughshod over them for 12 years. When the 13th year, those
five kings banded together again to form a rebellion against their
captors. And this rebellion lasted about
a year. And five kings got tired of it. They came together. And they
came down and they put this rebellion down. They crushed it. And just
to teach everybody a lesson, don't rebel against us, they
destroyed pretty much all of those five other nations. They
killed the kings. They took everything that was
of any value whatsoever They took it as spoils of war. The
people that did not escape to the mountains, they took us as
captives to be slaves back in their home country. And that
included lot his lot. And Abraham's nephew was taken
as a, to be a slave. Look here at verse 11 and they
took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their victuals
and went their way and they took lot Abram's brother's son who
dwelt in Sodom and his goods and they departed. Somebody escaped
and came and told Abraham what had happened. Remember Abraham
and Lot had separated. There's probably quite some distance
between them to give the land room to, you know, support all
their herds and so forth. Somebody escaped and went and
told Abraham what happened. Verse 13. And there came one
that had escaped and told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt in the
plain of Mamre, the Amorite brother of Escol and his brother of Aner. And these were confederate with
Abram. Now here, After Abram gets this
news, his nephew had been taken slave. Here's where our picture
of Christ, our mighty conqueror begins. The first thing I want
us to see is this. This is my father's world. God
has an elect people. God's going to save those people.
But now those people are born captives. Lot here is a picture
of God's elect. Lot had been taken captive by
these four kings and there wasn't one blessed thing he could do
to set himself free. He couldn't stop them from hurting
his family. He couldn't, I mean, he couldn't do anything to help
himself or his family from these powerful kings. So if Lot's going
to go free, Abraham's going to have to come do it. These other
five kings, the king of Sodom, he's useless in this matter.
He's already been defeated. If Lot's going to go free, Abraham's
going to have to come set him free. Now that's a mighty good
picture of the believer by nature, isn't it? We're born in captivity. We're born under the power and
influence of Satan. We go through our lives being
deceived by Satan. We walked according to the prints
of the power of the air, even as others. But you know, Satan's
really not our biggest problem. Satan can't hold anyone or anything
against the will of our God. Not one thing. Don't ever get
the idea that Satan and God are warring, you know, and sometimes
Satan's going to keep somebody captive and sometimes God's going
to set him free. No, God sets everybody free. He wills to set free. Think about
our Lord's earthly ministry. Every single time he came across
someone who's demon possessed, nobody else could help. All the
Lord had to do is speak and that demon had to come out. Every
time. I mean, it's not hard. All you
have to do is speak. The Savior crushed Satan's power at Calvary. He crushed his head and put him
out of business. So Satan has no power against
our Lord or against his people. He'll accuse them, but he has
no power. So we are under the influence
of Satan. I'm not denying that at all, but that's not our real
problem. Our real problem is that we're held captive by the
justice of God. Our real problem is we need to
be saved from God. And if we're going to go free
from God's justice, there can't be a jailbreak. Somebody's got
to pay the price so that we go free and the price that God's
justice demands is paid. And you and I are helpless to
do that. We can't pay anything down on our debt, our debt of
sin. So if we're going to go free, somebody's got to come
pay the price for us. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ did. He came to this earth to satisfy God's justice for
his people. God's justice, and this is from
the very beginning of the giving of the law all through the Bible,
God's justice demands that sin be paid for with blood. It's
not silver, it's not gold, it's not religious activity. It's
got to be blood. And it can't be an animal blood.
It can't be my blood. It can't be the blood of my children.
It's got to be pure. Sinless blood. It's the blood,
God said, that maketh an atonement for the soul. Well, our blood
can't pay for sin. Our blood can't atone for sin
because our blood's full of sin. That's all it is. But the blood
of Christ, well, that's another matter. His blood is pure. His
blood is sinless because he lived a perfect life, a life of perfect
obedience. He did no sin. He knew no sin. There was not even any sin in
any of his beings. And Christ offered himself as
a sacrifice for the sin of his people. Now don't be mistaken
when we say Christ offered himself. The sacrifice of Christ is not
an offer to you and me to see if we'll decide to accept Jesus
as our personal savior. The blood of Christ was sacrificed
before the father. It was offered before the father.
And that blood, the blood of God's son, satisfied God's justice. It paid the sin debt in full.
The father said, it's enough. The blood of my son is enough. The father is well pleased. His whole character, his character
of justice and holiness and righteousness, his character of mercy and grace
is all well pleased by the blood of Christ. His justice is satisfied
by the blood of Christ. It put away seeing it paid the
price. His mercy and his grace is satisfied
with the blood of Christ. Now God's free to show mercy
and grace to sinners in justice, all because of the blood of Christ.
That's why the apostle John could say it's the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's son, that cleanses us from all sin. All sin has been put
away. It's the power of it. It's all
been paid for and put away by the blood of Christ. But now
we have another problem. Justice is satisfied. God's satisfied. But we're also born captive to
sin. We've got a sin nature. And boy,
it's powerful. I mean, more powerful than these
four kings. Powerful. That nature, Adam's
nature of sin that we're born with is so powerful, we can't
stop sinning. I mean, you think, you know,
how many times have you heard somebody say, well, can you just not sin for
a second? You know, the moment somebody asks you that question,
we sin. I mean, it's just, we can't stop sinning. And that
sin nature has a power over us. It's not just the power that
we can't stop sinning. We can't stop committing what
people call sin. This sin nature blinds us, makes
us dead in sin, so we cannot believe Christ. Preacher can
stand up here and tell you, believe on Christ. Can tell you you're
conditioned by nature. Can tell you, as best human language
can explain it, the glories of Christ the Savior. And tell you
now you come to Him begging for mercy. And that's sin nature. I don't care how good a preacher
He is. I don't care how eloquent He is. I don't care how much
you like Him. You can't believe. You can't. He says look to Christ
and you can't. You can't see. You can't see
your need of Christ. You can't see your way to trust
Him. We're helpless because of the power of our sin nature.
And if we're going to go free from that, somebody else has
got to set us free from it. So Christ comes in the person
of his spirit, and he sets his people free from the power of
sin by giving them a new nature, a nature that's righteous and
holy. And that new man, now there's
two natures in a believer, the new man and the old man. That
old man is unchanged. He's just as sinful, just as
vile, just as much trouble as he ever was, except now you think
he's worse because you've got a second nature. You've got a
new man who can see the sin of the old man. You've got a new
man that the old man can now fight against. But that new man
rules. And you think, I don't feel like
the new man rules me too much because I can't stop sinning.
I don't sin less now than before God saved me. I find myself,
it seems like I sin more. I'm in a struggle here. I don't
see how this new man is ruling. It seems to me like the old man
is ruining everything I want to do. That's probably true.
But here's how the new man rules. The old man cannot make you not
believe anymore. Oh, he tries every day, doesn't
he? The old man tries every day to bring you back into captivity
to the law. The old man tries every day to get you to trust
your own righteousness, your own morality, your own good deeds,
instead of trusting Christ. He tries every day. Why haven't
you done it? The new man won't let you. The
new man rules. He loves Christ. He trusts Christ.
And he can't not believe. The old man can't believe. It's
impossible. The new man can't not believe. It's impossible for him not to
believe Christ. So he rules in that way. And like I say, we
still sin. That's all we do is sin. But
the believer looks to Christ for forgiveness, looks to the
blood of Christ to cleanse us from all of our sin, looks to
Christ for forgiveness, and we don't look anywhere else. That's
how the new man rules. So we have to be saved from our
sin, don't we? Sin's got to be paid for. We've got to be saved
from the power of our sin nature. And we have to be saved from
God. We have to be saved from his wrath and his justice. And
that way Christ has set his people free from bondage to sin, from
captivity to God's law, from being under the threat of God's
wrath because he satisfied it all for us. All right, number
two. This is such a, this thing of
salvation. It bothers me how I see people,
you all don't do it, but I see people most on the internet and
things, just wanting to argue over all this technical stuff. They get so technical with all
this stuff about salvation, they just squeeze all the sweetness
and all the life out of it. Here's my second point. It's
Christ, our elder brother, who came to set his people free.
Look at verse 14. And when Abram heard that his
brother was taken captive. Now, I just love this. I loved
how the Holy Spirit moved Moses to write brother. He didn't write. So many other times you hear
about Lot. He's Abram's brother's son, isn't
he? Here, Abram heard his brother
was taken captive. This is brother. Oh, this is
a close relationship. Isaac, it's his brother. You
know how bad it is. It's his brother. It's his brother in
Christ. It's his brother in the flesh. Let me say this, first of all,
about this matter of our brethren. I hope we all, God will give
us the same attitude that Abraham had here, that he had toward
Lot. Abraham hears his brother is
in trouble. And against odds that no sane
man would go against, Abraham went after him. Because it's
my brother. It's my brother. I hope we all,
as fast as we can, jump to help our brethren. We hear about our
brothers in a time of need. I hope we jump to help him. We
hear of a brother who's being persecuted. Tell you what you
do, you go stand with him. I mean you stand shoulder to
shoulder with him. If you're going after him, you're going
after me too. Don't let people say all these things about him.
If he's being slandered, you defend him. Don't you keep your
mouth shut. You defend him. He's your brother. And if our
brother has been overtaken in some fault, Scripture says you
that are spiritual, restore such a one. Do it quickly. He's your brother. Restore such
a one in a spirit of meekness. Consenting yourself lest you
also be tempted. Boy, if I'm tempted and I fall,
I sure hope somebody restore me. Well, my brother does. I want to do it for him too.
He's my brother. And if we do that, you know what we would
be doing? We'd be following the example
of Christ our Savior. He's our elder brother. Solomon
said a brother is born for adversity. Tell you who he is primarily
talking about there. Christ our elder brother. He borne for adversity. We're in adversity, aren't we?
Been taken captive, been taken captive by sin. We're in the
prison house of God's justice. And our savior, our elder brother,
saw his brethren, his brothers and his sisters were held captive. And he moved quickly to set them
free. He took on him their nature so
he could come set them free. Look at Hebrews chapter two.
I hope this is a wonder of God's grace that we can't get over. That the son of God would call
his people his brethren. His brethren. He told his disciples,
I go to my father and your father. Now, if two of us have the same
father, that makes us brethren. He's telling his disciples, we're
brethren. And look what he says here, Hebrews
2 verse 10. Can you think of a more amazing
statement than that? The perfect holy son of God is
not ashamed to call the likes of you and me his brethren. Oh my goodness. He's not ashamed. The one who sanctified and the
ones who are sanctified, they're one. He sanctified his people.
He made them as holy as he's holy. And he's not ashamed to
call them his brethren. He's glad to identify with them.
And look what he does for his younger brethren. He preaches
to them. He reveals the father to them.
Verse 12. saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praise
unto thee. Oh, the preacher preaches and you don't hear nothing. And
one day you hear. One day you hear and believe.
One day you hear your heart's thrilled. What's happened? Well,
you quit hearing the preacher. You start hearing your elder
brother who declared unto you the gospel, who spoke to your
heart and revealed the father to you. And since Christ is not
ashamed to call his people his brethren, he preaches the gospel
to them, he saves them, he gives them a new nature, he preserves
and protects them. You know what else he's gonna
do for all of his brethren? He's gonna bring them all to
glory. Verse 13. And again, I'll put my trust
in him. And again, when it's all done,
when it's all done but the shouting, this is what the Savior's gonna
say to the Father. Behold, I and the children, which God has given
me. These are your children. They're
my brethren. I loved them. I set my love upon
them. I came and I sacrificed myself
for them. I'm bringing them all to you. You count them, Father. Not one's missing. I redeemed
them all and brought them all to glory. Huh. I don't even feel right talking
about that. The glory of that is so much bigger than I can
comprehend, certainly than I can speak. What a big brother we
have who will fight all of the battles his younger brothers
find themselves in. He'll defend them against every
enemy, against every foe at all cost, even if it cost him his
life's blood. And it did. And he went there,
shed his blood to defend his brother to save them from their
sins. What else are you going to go
through? He's not going to save you. What else are you going to go
through? What other battle you got? He fought that one for you. What
other battles is he going to leave you to fight on your own?
Not one. Having a big brother like that
makes me want to be a better brother to you. All right, here's
the third thing. Again, this is what these folks
that These wannabe theologians, I don't know anything else to
call them. They get into all this technical stuff and they
squeeze the life. They squeeze the sweetness out
of the gospel. Here's something that they miss.
Here's something that they just squeeze the sweetness out of.
Our Savior was moved by love to come set his people free.
Abraham loved Lot. And he immediately went after
him. to go rescue him immediately.
There wasn't a moment's hesitation in Abraham. When Lot got in trouble,
Abraham didn't say, boys, I told you that's what happened to him.
Now he's getting what he deserves. I'm going to stay here in my
hearth. He didn't say that, did he? Abraham didn't say, he chose
that bunch down there in Sodom, and he's made a bed. Now he's
got a line in it. Abraham didn't say that. He immediately
went after his brother. And the only reason he'd do it
is because he loves him. That's a picture, a clear picture
of the Savior's love for his people. When we fell in sin,
and we fell in open rebellion against God Almighty, we fell
in open rebellion against the Son of God and shook our fist
in His face and said, I'll not have this man to reign over me.
The Savior didn't say, uh-huh, There they are in the present
house of God's justice. They're getting what they deserve. Let
them hang. When we fell into sin, the Savior
didn't say, well, they made their choice. They chose to disobey
me. They made their bed. Now they
got to lie in it. No, he didn't say that. The Savior
immediately set out to save his people. I mean they rebelled
against him, they sinned against him, they never did one blessed
thing to contribute to his name. They did nothing but sin against
him, yet he set out to redeem them from their sin at great,
great cost to himself. He knew when he came he was going
to have to sacrifice himself to save them from their sins,
and he came anyway. He set his face like a flint
toward Jerusalem. He wouldn't be deterred from
his mission. because for reasons known only
to God, he loves his people with a great, immeasurable, eternal
love. It was the Savior's love for
his people that moved him to sacrifice himself for them. He
told them, before he went to the cross, greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
I call you my friends and I call you my brethren, and I'm laying
down my life There's no greater love than that. How many times
do we read the Savior sees a multitude of people, and He was moved with
compassion. He was moved with love for them,
pity for them, because Scripture says they were as sheep, not
having a shepherd. And He'd feed them, He'd heal
them, He'd lead them, He'd do things for them, because He loves
His people. It's the Savior's love for His
people. that moves him to send the gospel
out to hunt down his people. That sheep is wandering further
and further and further away from God. Can't find his way
back and don't want to come back. Yet God sends the gospel after
him and reaches them and calls them to himself. You know why
he does that? Because of his love for his people.
I have loved thee with an everlasting love, he says. Therefore, with
loving kindness have I drawn thee. I've drawn you to Me because
I've loved you from all of eternity. The Savior leads His sheep. He
feeds them. How often do we read about the
shepherd carrying His people in His bosom with His tender
compassion? It's His love. Look at Romans
chapter 8. Now the love of Christ means
something. Anybody that says Christ could
die for somebody, Christ could love someone, but they could
still perish. They've absolutely cheapened
and ruined God's love. The love of God means something.
The love of Christ the Savior means something, and this is
what it means. Everybody he loves is going to
be plumb-saved, and there's not a chance they'll perish. Romans
8, verse 37. Nay, in all these things we're
more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death nor life neither angels nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And what a heart thrilling wonder
that the Lord Jesus Christ loves sinners like you and me. If he
loves us, we got no problems. Oh, his love. If we would think
the ocean filled, or the skies a parchment made, where every
stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write
the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, though could the
scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. And
it's that love he set on his people. Oh, what love he has
for his people. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Back in our text, the Savior has set his people free
all by himself. Verse 14. Chapter 14, verse 14. And when Abraham heard that his
brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born
in his own house, 318, and pursued them unto Dan. Now Abraham had
an army of 318. 18 men to go against the armies
of four different kings, four different armies, 318 men. And humanly speaking, those are
not good odds. Those are not good odds at all.
But thankfully with God, all things are possible. You know,
Abraham, Never would have gone into this battle as outnumbered
as he must have been. I mean, it's hard telling how
many men these four kings had, these four different armies,
how many men that made up. Abraham never would have gone
into that battle unless he had faith in God. He never would
have gone into that battle so outnumbered and won unless he
fought this battle by faith. And you and I should remember
that. In all of our battles, You know, all the battles that
we have, the difficulties that we have in this life. The biggest
battle we ever have is with ourself. It's with our own sin, with our
own old man, that old dead man trying to drag us down. That's
our biggest battle every day. And the one and only way that
battle can be won is by faith in Christ, by believing Christ
and trusting Him. You think of all of our sins,
we can't even handle one of them. Not even one. We can't put one
of them away. We can't defeat one of them.
Our big brother had to do that. The only way our sin can be put
away, the only way it can be paid for, the only way the power
of that sin nature we have can be put away is the blood of Christ. The only way we can win this
battle is by looking to Christ and believing He's all it takes.
He's all I need. You know, the power of sin is
death. The death that sin brings. Well,
the only way you can have eternal life is by faith in Christ. It's all by faith in Christ.
And that's what Abraham pictures here. He just had 318 soldiers. Now, what is that? That's a drop
in the bucket compared to four armies, isn't it? Well, the Lord
Jesus Christ is just one man. What's he against an infinite
mountain of sin? He came to save a people, He
said, no man can number. Each one of them has an infinite
amount of sin. Do the math on that. What's one
man in the face of that infinite amount of sin? What's one man's
blood in the face of such a large sin debt? The debt of all that
sin, what's one man? How's he gonna pay that one debt,
all that debt by himself? What's one man's righteousness
in the face of a number of sinners that no man can count? Well,
I'll tell you what, it's victory if that one man is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ is enough as long as He's
all you got. Christ is enough as long as you
don't add anything to Him. Christ alone saves. Don't try to add your good works
and your something else to make you easier to be saved than somebody
else. If you do that, you're going to be lost. But if you
have Christ alone, you'll be saved. Christ alone gives life. But now if you try to do anything
to help add to that, make that life better because of what you
do, your morality or whatever it is you like to do, you'll
die in your sins. But if Christ is all you've got,
you have eternal life. Christ alone is the righteousness
of His people. But if you try to add your works
to it, you'll ruin it and you'll perish. But if Christ is all
you've got, you have eternal righteousness. made the righteousness
of God in him. If Christ is all you have, you'll
be set free. That's what Abraham's army of
318 represents. What are they in the face of
so many? What's this one man in the face of so many? Well,
it's victory if Christ is all you got. In Christ, our mighty
conqueror has defeated every enemy. He's not left one. He's
conquered them all. verse 15. And he divided himself
against them. He and his servants by night
and smoked them and pursued them under Hobo, which is on the left
hand of Damascus. Now I am no military scholar,
no military historian. Um, I've watched band of brothers
a lot. Thanks to Carter Brown. I mean,
I've watched Band of Brothers a lot. And I still never did
see in any of that my watching and studying these military movements
that it's such a good idea to take a real super small force
and divide them into three smaller forces. I don't think they teach
that at West Point. I just don't. I mean, I could
be wrong, but I don't think so. Abraham took this small band
of men and divided them into three parts and defeated four
great armies. I mean, ran them off. Took everything
that they had. Now the only possible explanation
for that victory is Lord gave it to them. It's the only possible
explanation. And those armies and those nations
are never a problem for Lot again. They never trouble him again.
Now you see what the picture here? This is what our Lord did
when he won the victory as the mighty conqueror for his people
at Calvary. The significance of Abraham dividing
his army, his little 318 men into three parts, has to be a
picture of salvation and redemption. The salvation of a sinner requires
the work of the whole Godhead. All the Godhead has to do their
part, his part, however you say that. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The salvation of a real sinner,
now I'm talking about a sinner that's dead in sin, a sinner
that can't help himself, that can't set himself free. The salvation
of a real sinner requires the work of all three, the whole
Godhead. The father must choose a people who will never choose
him. They'll never choose him, so
if they're gonna be saved, the father has to choose to save them. They'll
never choose to be saved by God, so if they're gonna be saved,
God has to choose them. Then the son must make those people
righteous. He's got to give them a righteous nature that God will
accept. God can't accept them in their sin. Somebody's got
to make him righteous. That's the work of God, the son.
He makes his people righteous by his obedience. The Holy Spirit
must give those people life. They're dead in sin. A dead man
can't give himself life. Somebody else got to give him
life. That's what the Holy Spirit does. He gives them life. In
the new birth, he gives them a nature that loves God. Different
from their old nature. Their old nature has a mind that's
enmity against God. So the Holy Spirit gives them
a new mind. He gives them a new will. A will that does come to
Christ. You can beg an unregenerate man
to come to Christ all you want. And he'll never come unless he's
just finally tired of hearing you say he comes to shut you
up. But it doesn't mean anything. The Holy Spirit gives a nature.
to His people that comes to Christ and you can't stop them from
coming. You can't stop them from believing. That's the work of
God, the Holy Spirit, and the work of the Father, the work
of the Son, and the work of Holy Spirit. Those three moving together
gives a full, complete victory over every enemy. Put them all
away. You sin your enemy? By the work
of the Godhead, sin's been put away. Justice has been satisfied. The power of Satan, the power
of Satan to deceive God's people, put away. Given a new nature,
they can't be deceived in trusting somebody else. The power of Satan
to accuse them, been put away. He's the accuser of the brethren,
he can accuse all day long. But the father looks at the books
and says, no sin here. Their sin's been put away. It's
been covered, it's been paid for. The sting of death, That's
your enemy? I would imagine nobody here is
thinking, boy, I sure would like to die tonight. I mean, you know,
you're a little worried about going through the experience
of death because you've never done it before. But there's no
sting of death for the believer. It's not your enemy. Death is
not your enemy if you believe Christ. He's taken the sting
out of it. The curse of the law? looking
at the law, the Ten Commandments and so forth to try to see how
to live. The curse of the law is gone
because Christ has made a curse for us. Look to him, not the
law. You walk right. Every enemy is
defeated and you're free from them forever because of a mighty
conqueror. And then here's the last thing.
Christ restored to his people everything we lost in Adam, only
better. verse 16, and he brought back
all the goods. And also brought again his brother-in-law
and his goods, and the women also, and the people. Abraham
brought back everything that those kings had taken. Everything. He even brought back their stuff.
He brought back more than they took away. And they got it all
back, and everybody's saying, well, this is mine, this is mine,
this is mine. And they got it all back. There wasn't even a
shoelace missing. Not even a shoelace. Not one
person was lost or carried into slavery. Not one. He brought
them all back. Abraham brought everything and
everyone back safely. Now, I know you see the picture
there. This is the complete victory of Christ our Savior. Everything
we lost in Adam, everything we forfeited by our sin has been
restored by Christ our Savior. Only better. Only better. Abraham lost righteousness, didn't
he? He lost an innocence. In Christ,
we're made innocent and given a righteousness that we can never
lose. See, Adam had an innocence. I hate to even call that a righteousness. He had an innocence. He could
lose if he sinned. He's innocent. He can make himself
not guilty. In Christ, you're made innocent. You can never
make yourself guilty. In Christ, you're righteous.
You can never make yourself unrighteous again, because it's not dependent
on you. It's dependent on Him. And He's
already won the victory. In Adam, we lost life. The moment
Adam sinned, he died spiritually. In Christ, we're given life that's
eternal. It's begun here. It's going to
go on there. When Adam sinned, he lost fellowship
with God. In Christ, taking his people
and said, Father, here they all are. I and the children, which
God's given me, they're all here. He's brought us back into fellowship
with God. Fellowship that will not end
throughout eternity. We'll worship him forever, face
to face. I believe that's fellowship,
isn't it, if it's face to face? Christ, our mighty conqueror,
has defeated every enemy. And we read it earlier, the writer
to the Hebrews said it. We're more than conquerors through
him. more than conquerors through him. The life of a believer is
enjoying a victory that we did not win. It's enjoying a peace
we did not make. It's enjoying the spoils of the
battle that we didn't even fight in. Why do you have that? It's because of Christ, our mighty
conqueror. Oh, thank God for him. All right, let's bow together.
Our Father, how we thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ, our
big brother, who has defeated every enemy, who blessed us so
richly in him, all because of him, all because of his free
gift of his grace to his people. Father, how thankful we are.
We're so humbled and amazed. What can we say but thank you?
Thank you, Lord. Father, I pray you'd bless your
word to your glory. Bless it to the hearts of your
people that we might believe in, trust in, and rest in Christ
our Savior. It is in his blessed name we
pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, Sean. OK, if you would stand and turn
to song number 450. And we'll sing, Isn't the Love
of Jesus Something Wonderful? There will never be a sweeter
story, story of the Savior's love divine, love that brought
him from the realms of glory, just to save a sinful soul like
mine. Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful, wonderful, wonderful? Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful, wonderful it is to me? Boundless as the universe
around me, reaching to the farthest soul away. Saving, keeping love, it was
that bound me. That is why my heart can truly
say, Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful,
wonderful? Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful, wonderful it is to me? Love beyond our human comprehending,
love of God in Christ, how can it be? This will be my theme
and never-ending, great redeeming love of Calvary. Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful, wonderful, wonderful? Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful, wonderful it is to me?